The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Thirty-Two

The water was a piercing type of cold.

The cave was cold, contrasting the searing heat the panic brought to her skin.

She couldn't breathe, air turned into liquid.

She couldn't breathe, her lungs fighting against themselves.

She was drowning, but she didn't know if she should care.

She was drowning in thoughts and conflictions.

'I love you. I love you. I love you.'

'I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.'

A hand on her wrist. Pulling and pulling and pulling.

A hand on her shoulder. 'Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me.'

"Momo!" Mylo's panicked voice exclaimed as soon as her head broke through the surface.

"Momo, you need to breathe," Ekko's voice urged.

"Hold onto me," Mylo said, adjusting his grip on her so that he could swim them towards the nearest ledge.

Her body quivered uncontrollably, a cold shiver piercing through her flesh and embedding itself internally. A manifestation of both temperature and heartache.

Her body twitched, as did the thing inside her chest. It was like a cold shiver, but of the heart. A warning sign that her instability was about to send her spiralling.

"E—Ekko—" she cried, arms secured around her brother's neck as he swam.

"E—Ekko—" she cried out, trying to let him know what was going to happen. But she wouldn't get the chance to finish her warning.

She went stiff, her joints locking up and a pressure forming in her head. Her bones ached and groaned, a weakness slithering throughout her that would've sent her plummeting towards the ground if Ekko wasn't there to catch her.

"Shit—" Ekko cursed, Momo convulsing in is arms. He'd seen her seize a few times now, but that didn't make seeing her this way any less heartrending. He still didn't know what he was supposed to do, the unknowing of it all maximizing his distress while contracting his earlier hurt from her rejection to the back of his mind, where he could mull over it later.

This time was different, he noticed. More acute. More debilitating. There were whimpers coming from deep within her spasming chest, like she was in agony.

"Oh God—" He had to stop himself from pulling her closer against him, knowing it could possibly hurt her while she was in this state.

Momo hardly heard the words, her eyes rolled back and her ears screaming with tinnitus. Everything started to fade. Sound. Sight. Touch. Smell. All burning out until the final remnants dissipated like smoke.

Mylo shed his coat, urging it over his sister's shoulders while she shivered and quaked.

"I'll get you back to your apartment and run you a hot bath," he explained after he allowed her to climb onto his back. He wasn't the strongest man, but his sister wasn't the heaviest woman either. He held her up by the undersides of her legs, while she clung to him, arms thrown over his shoulders. He could feel her trembling against his back.

"Almost there," he said, cutting through an alleyway.

Six cried an eon of tears, each one that fell a burning scrape against the chill the night air brought her soaked body. She did so silently, having no energy to make even the faintest of sounds.